"I still find it an incredible novelty that I'm allowed to do that," Beckinsale told Parade. "My mother still laughs at the thought of me running around based on my success in PE as a child, which was very poor! It's fantasy."

She went on to say: "My comfort zone is probably more in the independent sphere, but there's something very fascinating about doing this movie and then six or seven months later when you actually see it with the special effects and all that, it looks very different than what it felt like when you were doing it."

Beckinsale also revealed that she's a fan of The Hunger Games and is anxiously waiting Jennifer Lawrence's big-screen version of Katniss Everdeen.

"Actually, my daughter's school encouraged all the parents and teachers and students to read The Hunger Games, so it promoted a massive discussion of it," she explained.

"For some reason, my daughter was a little bit resistant to it at first, but then we just were all completely overwhelmed by it.

"It was actually this summer that we were all reading it and loving it. We can't wait for the movie. It looks fantastic."

Beckinsale next co-stars with Colin Farrell and Jessica Biel in the remake of Total Recall, opening on August 3 in the US and August 22 in the UK.